Rothwell W.J. - Beyond Training and Development[c] The Groundbreaking Classic on Human Performance Enhancement (2004)(2-e)(en)

204 SELECTING AND IMPLEMENTING HPE STRATEGIES: INTERVENING FOR CHANGE

Exhibit 10-6. A worksheet for assessing the organization’s strategic planning process.

Directions: Use this worksheet to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the organization’s strategic planning process. For each step in strategic planning listed in the left column, rate the effectiveness of the step as it currently exists. Use the following scale:

egy, given the constraints within which the organization must operate?

and after implementation?

206 SELECTING AND IMPLEMENTING HPE STRATEGIES: INTERVENING FOR CHANGE

Exhibit 10-7. A worksheet for planning improvements to organizational strategic planning practices.

Directions: Use this worksheet to help plan improvements to organizational strategic planning practices. For each question appearing in the left column, provide an answer in the space at right. There are no right or wrong answers. If you wish, circulate this worksheet among decision makers and employees to gain the benefits of their perspectives on these issues.

1.What areas of the strategic planning process deserve improvement?

2.How should those areas of strategic planning be improved?

3.How can strategic planning become the basis for planning human performance enhancement strategies? What strategies would be particularly useful in encouraging the formulation and implementation of strategic planning itself?

4.How should those HPE strategies be implemented?

identify and justify HPE strategies that are directly tied to the organization’s competitive initiatives or strategic objectives and that can build on the organization’s core competencies or cultivate new ones.

How Should HPE Strategies Be Implemented?

As the competency model of HPE indicates, HPE specialists should anticipate the consequences of their HPE strategies, establish action plans, and implement those plans. Essentially, implementing HPE strategy requires the same steps as implementing organizational strategy.1 For each HPE strategy, HPE specialists should work with key decision makers and employees to do the following:2

1.Clarify the purpose or mission of the HPE strategy.

2.Establish HPE goals and measurable objectives.

3.Assess future threats and opportunities outside the organization that may affect the relative success of the HPE strategy in the organization.

4.Assess present strengths and weaknesses of the organization in relation to the HPE strategy.

5.Select an HPE strategy or strategies to achieve desired enhancements to human performance.

6.Assess the likely outcomes or side effects of the HPE strategy or strategies and plan to avoid negative side effects.

7.Establish an implementation action plan.

Kathleen Whiteside has also indicated key factors in implementing interventions.3 These factors include:

Plan the intervention.

Ensure communication.

Analyze the target population.

Plan for the politics.

Assess for events or issues that may interfere with the intervention rollout.

Make sure to sequence the rollout steps appropriately.

The Competencies of the HPE Implementer

When enacting the role of human performance enhancement implementers, HPE specialists are required to demonstrate specific competencies (see Appendix I). These competencies include the following:

Ability to implement, or coordinate implementation of, HPE strategies, integrating them with organizational strategic plans. Organization strategic plans articulate how the organization will interact with its external environment. HPE specialists should be able effectively to link HPE strategy to organizational strategy.

Ability to implement, or coordinate implementation of, HPE strategies, integrating them with organizational culture, structure, and politics. Implementation of HPE strategy cannot be carried out effectively unless it is consistent with the organization’s culture, structure (reporting relationships), and politics. HPE specialists should be able to link HPE strategy to these key issues inside the organization.

208SELECTING AND IMPLEMENTING HPE STRATEGIES: INTERVENING FOR CHANGE

Ability to implement, or coordinate implementation of, HPE strategies, integrating them with work processes and work methods. Work is the point at which individual and organization meet. To be effective, HPE strategy must be implemented in ways that are sensitive to the existing— and desired—work processes and methods of the organization.

Ability to implement, or coordinate implementation of, HPE strategies, giving each worker a say in decisions affecting him or her. HPE specialists must implement HPE strategies in ways that empower individual workers and allow them to participate in implementing strategies designed to improve the match between individual competencies and work requirements.

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A procedure is naturally related to a policy and flows from it. A procedure answers the question ‘‘How should the policy be implemented?’’ Most procedures provide step-by-step guidance on exactly how to enact policy.

Both policy and procedure represent statements of what should be happening. They are points of departure at which to assess variation, performance problems, and measurement. Differences between policy or procedure and actual practice often represent performance problems, just as differences between future plans and present practices often represent performance enhancement opportunities.

Policies provide guidance across several organizational functions, although they may also provide coordination within one division, department, work unit or team, or among several jobs. Examples of policy with organizational scope include executive compensation policies, employee selection or promotion policies, and collective bargaining agreements. Examples of policies with more restricted scope include policies on handling returned goods, customer complaints, supplier shipments, product warranties, and computer access. Virtually any area of organizational activity can be guided by a policy and related procedures.

What Are the Differences Between Formal and Informal Policies and Procedures?

Interest in documenting policy and procedure has been stimulated by ISO (short for International Standards Organization) 9000 requirements, which affect businesses involved in international trade. ISO requires businesses to document their procedures.

Formal policies and procedures are documented in writing and stem from deliberate management or employee decisions. The need for a policy is identified because of a new law, past problems in handling the work within a unit or team, or past problems stemming from poor coordination across the organization. Such problems lead to efforts to clarify exactly what results are desired and how they should be achieved.

In contrast, informal policies and procedures are not documented in writing and represent precedent or group norms. If a customer is given a refund on a returned product with no questions asked and if no written policy governs that action, it is an informal policy. That action may establish a precedent; future customers may expect similar treatment, or employees may rely on that precedent as guidance for solving similar problems in the future.

Group norms, much like policy stemming from precedent, are usually estab-

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made. Are they made at the top and imposed down? Are they made at the bottom and communicated up? Are they made in the middle and moved up and down from there? Is the corporate culture top-down (authoritarian and mechanistic) or bottom-up (empowering and organic)? Are only some issues addressed at higher, middle, or bottom levels and other issues left to be addressed elsewhere?

Once it is clear that a new policy or procedure is needed or that an old policy or procedure needs to be updated, there are several ways to go about the process. One approach is to assign one individual, such as an HPE specialist, to draft a policy and related procedures and circulate them among other staff for modifications and approvals. Another approach is to select a task force, committee, or cross-functional team to draft the policy and procedure and then circulate it for modifications and approvals.

Some organizations have their own policy and procedure format and expect any draft policy and procedure statement to be consistent with that format. Other organizations do not rely on a consistent format. As a rule, however, a policy should state its purpose and a guiding philosophy, clarifying the results desired and why they are desired. The procedure should describe exactly how the policy should be implemented. Some procedures are written chronologically (to indicate who should do what in what order); some are written in playscript technique to clarify, much as in a theatrical production, who should be doing what and when; some are written in other ways. The sample policy and procedure on succession planning in Exhibit 11-1 can be used as a model for developing other policies and procedures.

Policy and procedure clarification begins when a problem with a policy or procedure is detected, when a new strategic plan is introduced, when employees say that they do not understand an existing policy or procedure, or when employees signal that they were never informed of a policy or procedure. Clarification may be approached as a communication issue or as a training issue. Policies and procedures should be treated in training and communicated through other means as well.

Communicating policies and procedures is critically important. Many methods may be used, including:

Policy and/or procedure manuals

Written or electronic memorandum reminders

Exhibit 11-1. A sample succession planning policy.

Purpose

To ensure replacements for key job incumbents in executive, management, technical, and professional positions in the organization. This policy covers middle management positions and above in [name of organization].

Desired Results

The desired results of the succession planning program are to:

Identify high-potential employees capable of rapid advancement to positions of higher responsibility than those they presently occupy.

Ensure the systematic and long-term development of individuals to replace key job incumbents as the need arises due to deaths, disabilities, retirements, and other unexpected losses.

Provide a continuous flow of talented people to meet the organization’s management needs.

Meet the organization’s need to exercise social responsibility by providing for the advancement of protected labor groups inside the organization.

Procedures

The succession planning program will be carried out as follows:

1.In January of each year, the MD director will arrange a meeting with the CEO to review results from the previous year’s succession planning efforts and to plan for the present year’s process.

2.In February top managers will attend a meeting coordinated by the MD director in which

A.The CEO will emphasize the importance of succession planning and review the previous year’s results.

B.The MD director will distribute forms and establish due dates for their completion and return.

C.The MD director will review the results of a computerized analysis to pinpoint areas of the organization in which predictable turnover, resulting from retirements or other changes, will lead to special needs for management talent.

D.The results of a computerized analysis will be reviewed to demonstrate how successful the organization has been in attracting protected labor groups into high-level positions and to plot strategies for improving affirmative action practices.

3.In April the forms will be completed and returned to the MD director. If necessary, a followup meeting will be held.

4.Throughout the year, the MD director will periodically visit top managers to review progress in developing identified successors throughout their areas of responsibility.

5.As need arises, the database will be accessed as a source of possible successors in the organization.

Source: William J. Rothwell and H. C. Kazanas, Building In-House Leadership and Management Development Programs (Westport, Conn.: Quorum Books, 1999), p. 131. Used with permission.

Staff meetings

Training or orientation sessions

Computer-based reference systems

The organization may have up-to-date policies and procedures that are not being communicated. Upon the acceptance of a policy or procedure, the HPE